Jehovah

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The name is associated with the monotheistic God worshiped in Judaism and Christianity, representing the unique deity in the Hebrew scriptures and significant in various religious discussions
2. This term signifies the God of Israel exclusively identified in the Hebrew Bible, representing a central figure in both Judaism and Christianity, and often referenced in religious discourse
3. A sacred designation used in Judeo-Christian traditions to refer to the singular God described in ancient Hebrew texts

Etymology: The most surprising fact is that the name was never meant to be read as written. The Hebrew text uses only four consonants, YHWH, and over the centuries Jewish scribes stopped pronouncing it aloud out of reverence. When the Masoretes later added vowel marks to the text, they gave the consonants the vowels of 'Adonai, "my lord," a word readers were supposed to say instead. The result, yəhōwā, was a deliberate misreading, a qere perpetuum, that mixed two names together. Christian translators then turned that hybrid into English. The name appears in English first in 1530, in William Tyndale's Bible, where Exodus 6:3 renders it as "Iehouah." Tyndale used it in place of the "Adonay" found in Wycliffe's version, and the King James Bible kept "Jehovah" in that single verse while rendering the same name as "Lord" everywhere else. The spelling "Jehovah" thus reflects an early modern English reading of the Hebrew, not the original pronunciation. Later translations show how much the choice mattered. Young's Literal Translation of 1898 keeps "Jehovah" throughout, while the New King James Version of 1982 follows the older practice of printing "Lord" in its place.